crow drop a chestnut down one of the big
metal rainwater pipes, fly down to the
ground, listen as it bounced and rattled its
way to the bottom of the spout, then pick it
up and repeat the performance.
"Unfortunately," said Slava, "there are
too many crows. Their numbers must be con
trolled." The sound of gunfire inside the
Kremlin would be an embarrassment, so the
Kremlin Commandant's office took up
falconry as a more discreet means of culling.
K himself introduced Cary and me to the
falconry team in the Tainitskii (Secret) Gar
den, which extends from Ivanovskaia Square
to the Kremlin wall by the river. The falcons'
handlers, Oleg and Nikolai, both Kremlin
guards, were shy and awkward until Oleg,
with touching spontaneity, handed around
apples picked from a nearby tree. Oleg and
Nikolai had with them a fine juvenile gos
hawk, one of three in training. The bird was
attached by jesses to a leather gauntlet worn
Inside the Kremlin